A Killing Game by Jeff Buick

 Renee Charlebois has been kidnapped. Or so her father believes. And he is certainly rich enough to make a stink about it to get something to happen. Curtis Westcott is the unfortunate Boston Chief of Homicide who is about to receive his demands, but with no ransom or evidence to indicate she has been kidnapped, he is flummoxed.

 

Having picked up an odd clue at a party he attended, he and Aislinn, a colleague of his, have the first part of a very specific puzzle set by someone out for revenge. No part of any clue can be ignored, as each random thing mentioned points to deeds done in the past and deeds still to be carried out. There is, of course, a time limit and if Curtis doesn’t stick to the schedule precisely, Renee will be another tick on the list of victims. But so many clues just don’t make sense, and when Renee’s father puts out a massive reward, this throws everything into chaos as multiple dead ends are thrown at the police.

 

Who is doing this? Why are they doing it? And most importantly, can they be stopped?

 

I picked this book up on a giveaway, and from the first page was hooked. The action is non-stop and the puzzles very cleverly put together. So clever, in fact, that sometimes you had to wonder how anyone could work them out. And this is where the book had me divided. On the one hand, you have an intricate plot with police deductions that are genius. On the other hand, you have a really dubious reason for the killer to be doing this, and the fact that Westcott (who has not been introduced as having a photographic memory for images or words) is able to recall conversations word for word – even to the smallest pronoun.

 

So I chose to suspend disbelief and read it for the story it was meant to be read as! It went along very quickly and it was a case of “just one more chapter” as I finished one. The cast of characters were all necessary to drive the story forward, and the conflict between some of the police departments made it seem more real. There were some silly punctuation mistakes, but they did not detract from the overall experience. A great read where you can put your feet up for the afternoon and dive into a world of “will they figure it out in time?”